THE PREMINUTEMEN

By LEROY GUMPTION

Take a peep at these handsome young men. Anybody look familiar? That’s Martin Tamburovich from New Alliance Records on the left there. And those other three guys are Martin’s high school buds Mike Watt, George Hurley, and Dennes Boon, aka D. Boon, aka they’re the Minutemen you dummy! This is their first band the Reactionaries. Mike Watt sent the demos they recorded in George’s family’s shed to a fansite a few years ago, but we just found it through Jeff Johnson’s blog and it’s like getting to hop in a time machine and hear a brand-new Minutemen album we haven’t already listened to a million times. A couple of the mp3s have gone dead since they first went up, so you should get in there quick and grab them while the gettin’s still good. Also, if you dig around, there’s a half-funny, half-pretty-awesome bootleg of Watt covering Sleater-Kinney. Oh and if you haven’t already, please set aside some time to watch Mike Watt on Soft Focus. It’s what D would have wanted.